LONDON – A British hacker is facing extradition to the United States after hacking into military computers for UFO evidence.

He is accused of hacking 97 military and NASA computers around 2001, often described as the biggest military computer hack ever. Authorities claim he deleted critical files from a number of expensive computers, but McKinnon denies this, saying he only accessed unsecure computers.

What was McKinnon looking for? Evidence of the government’s knowledge of alien life. In an interview with Wired Magazine, he described what he was after:

“A NASA photographic expert said that there was a Building 8 at Johnson Space Center where they regularly airbrushed out images of UFOs from the high-resolution satellite imaging. I logged on to NASA and was able to access this department. They had huge, high-resolution images stored in their picture files. They had filtered and unfiltered, or processed and unprocessed, files.

“My dialup 56K connection was very slow trying to download one of these picture files. As this was happening, I had remote control of their desktop, and by adjusting it to 4-bit color and low screen resolution, I was able to briefly see one of these pictures. It was a silvery, cigar-shaped object with geodesic spheres on either side. There were no visible seams or riveting. There was no reference to the size of the object and the picture was taken presumably by a satellite looking down on it. The object didn’t look manmade or anything like what we have created. Because I was using a Java application, I could only get a screenshot of the picture — it did not go into my temporary internet files. At my crowning moment, someone at NASA discovered what I was doing and I was disconnected.

I also got access to Excel spreadsheets. One was titled ‘Non-Terrestrial Officers.’ It contained names and ranks of U.S. Air Force personnel who are not registered anywhere else. It also contained information about ship-to-ship transfers, but I’ve never seen the names of these ships noted anywhere else.”

Is McKinnon telling the truth? There is no way to know, as he was unable to save anything he saw. He was subsequently arrested, and today was told he will be extradited to the United States to stand trial.

His mother, Janis Sharp, is pleading with President Obama to intervene, as McKinnon has Asperger’s Syndrome, which she believes led him to his unlawful behavior. “Obama wouldn’t have this. He doesn’t want the first guy extradited for computer misuse to be a guy with Asperger’s, a UFO guy,” said Sharp today.

Do you think he should be punished? Or was he really onto something?

And the winner is…

Congratulations to SkyPork, and thanks to all the readers for voting!

Think you can do better than this?  Take a stab captioning next week’s image over at PictureIsUnrelated.com, someone seems a little lost:

WASHINGTON, DC – Last night, President Obama and two other men met for the much publicized Beer Summit. Though the meeting is considered a success their wives are not nearly so thrilled.

Thursday night President Obama met with Harvard Professor Henry Gates and police Sgt. James Crowley to discuss an incident two weeks ago regarding racial profiling, and how best to help the country move forward.  The meeting was highly informal and the press was barred from the event.  Pictures were taken of the men starting the evening off with steins on the Rose Garden, but that is the all.  The President and two other men refused to comment on what else happened that evening.

In an interview done this morning Mrs. Crowley states that “My God, I have never seen my husband this way.  He came in at 6 this morning yelling about car bombs and chasing, it took me ten minutes to realize he was talking about drinks.  He reeked to high heaven of bourbon.  I had to throw him on the couch, and he kept singing Marvin Gaye until he passed out.”

When asked how he arrived home she said “It was the strangest thing, two secret service agents were holding him up.  They knocked on the door and made sure this was the right address and I was his wife.  I think they’d been to a few other houses first.  Then they practically threw him on me, got in the car and drove off.  And I swear, as they were heading out I saw the President stand up out of the cars sunroof.  He was wearing a blue button down shirt, but the sleeves had been ripped off.  He screamed ‘Rematch for next time!’  When I checked my husband’s pockets he had a handwritten letter on White House letterhead saying it was the Presidents Award for Physical Fitness in Beer Pong.  It was signed by the President so I guess its official.”

White House sources confirm that over the course of the night the liquor cabinet in the Kennedy Party Lounge was nearly emptied.  Though they had prepared by bringing in cases of American made beer, the party quickly went behind closed doors and switched to mixed drinks.  The three men drowned the countries racial sorrows over Irish car bombs, something Henry Gates had never tried before.

As the evening moved on they shared tequila shooters, jack and coke, and a President Obama specialty; ginger lemonade with dark and light rum, a drink he calls “Ginger loves Mary-Anne.”  Professor Gates tried to maintain a sense of decorum, but eventually led the group on vocals while they played Rock Band.  Sources indicate that he is refusing to take any calls until Monday.

Michelle Obama has been very closed lipped on the issue of the Beer Summit.  Her only response to reporters has been “I fully support my husband.  Even if he did something Stupid all night instead of healing the countries wounds, I still love and support him.”

No other official comment has yet come from the White House, but new rugs were being delivered before dawn this morning.

I’m madder than a wino at a Mormon wedding! That stupid “Beer Summit” was a crazy joke!

The Teleprompter Kid said this whole thing with his professor friend and the cop was “a teachable moment.” But the only lesson I’m getting out of it is: “If you get arrested and make enough of a stink about it, you get invited for a beer at the White House!”

And not even American beer! No, that’s not good enough for the Communist-in-Chief. I’m surprised he didn’t serve vodka, or some crappy Cuban rum!

Once upon a time, you got invited to the Rose Garden if you were an astronaut or you won the Super Bowl or a gold medal in the Olympics.

But these days it’s only a matter of time before Rodney King gets the Presidential Medal of Freedom!

So kids: just yell “police brutality” loud enough and you too can get to shake the President’s hand, and give the cop who arrested you a lecture about “racial profiling” – even if the cop is already an expert about it!

Breaking the law used to get you kicked out of the White House, back in Nixon’s day. These days, between Tim Geithner and Van Jones and the rest of them, you have to have an arrest record to work there!

I’ve gotten used to criminals like Ted Kennedy being in the Senate, but the White House should be sacred ground!

Speaking of which, I hope Teddy wasn’t last night’s designated driver!